Super Bowl XLVI sets new tweet-per-second record

Ahmad Bradshaw, left, of the New York Giants scores a game-winning touchown late in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XLVI.

Ahmad Bradshaw, left, of the New York Giants scores a game-winning touchown late in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XLVI. (Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images)

Nathan Olivarez-Giles

If you haven't heard, Sunday's Super Bowl was a major hit -- 12,233 tweets per second, in fact.

The big game, officialy known as Super Bowl XLVI, was a record setter for the popular social network Twitter and, as noted over on the Times' Show Tracker blog, it was also the most-watched program in TV history.

Millions of tweets were sent during the game as Twitter users shared their commentary on quarterback Eli Manning leading the New York Giants to victory over QB Tom Brady and the New England Patriots by a score of 21 to 17. The game was a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, which the Giants also won.

The 46th annual Super Bowl set a record for the most tweets per second during a sporting event, with 13.7 million game-related tweets sent out from 3 to 8 p.m. pacific time, when the game was broadcast on NBC.

"In 2008, Twitter's largest spike in tweets per second (TPS) during the Super Bowl was just 27," Twitter said in a blog post on Monday. Last year, Super Bowl fans peaked at 4,064 tweets per second during the Super Bowl, far less than in 2012, the company said.

"This year, the TPS peak was 12,233 tweets. The spike took place in the final three minutes of the game, during which fans sent an average of 10,000 TPS," Twitter said.

But the Giants and the Patriots weren't the only thing Twitter users were sounding off about during the Super Bowl.

"Madonna's performance during halftime was a big hit, too," the San Francisco company said. "There was an average of 8,000 TPS sustained during her performance, with a peak of 10,245 tweets."